Stab

The Dane Reynolds Tag Team Challenge At Empty Rincon

Welcome to Episode 3 of the Surf100 Challenge Series Presented by Pacifico, the third round in our $100,000 title fight.

Last week, we lost our second surfer — Mateus Herdy — by a Pringle-thin margin at the hands of Cam Richards (and burly Blacks Beach).

With Mateus and Noah Beschen gone, only six surfers remain in contention for the final $100k prize: Jacob Willcox, Ian Crane, Rasta Robb, Eithan Osborne, Cam Richards, and Sebastian Williams.

Now, let’s reveal the third challenge: Surf100’s first and only team challenge, with a mutinous twist.

Episode Three: Dumpster Diver Tag Team:

Six surfers compete in a 2 v. 2 v. 2 tag-team match-up.
Each surfer can catch up to three waves in their round, but only the wave they claim is scored out of 100.
Once a surfer claims a wave, the head to the beach and tag in their next teammate. The second teammate must surf and claim their wave before 30 minutes are up.
Each team’s two claimed waves are combined to form their heat total.
The team with the highest heat total in Round 1 is safe — the other two teams go to Round 2, where the process repeats.
The team that loses Round 2 will then be split in Round 3 and have to surf against one another to decide who goes home.

J BAY "AS GOOD AS IT GETS" AHEAD OF CT - CAN JORDY SMITH DEFEND HIS TURF?!?

The tall, handsome South African who helped smuggle Stab into the U.S. surf scene like a fine bottle of Chablis, Damien “Dooma” Fahrenfort—the velvety voice from Stab High Japan, Channel 51 and How Surfers Get Paid—has been deep in the analytics, trying to forecast the winners of this year’s J-Bay event.

Dooma’s more than a crisp shirt and quick wit. He’s surfed CT heats at both J-Bay and Mundaka (2009), and by his own modest estimation, has won the J-Bay Trials four or five times. We’d fact-check that stat, if only the South African Trials archives weren’t harder to access than the true authors of the Rosetta Stone.

Five it is!

Here’s his Betonline.AG squad below.

Mens
Jordy Smith 2x winner
Filipe Toledo 2x winner
Ethan Ewing 1x winner
Connor O’Leary

Womens

Molly Picklum
Caity Simmers
Caroline Marks

Place your bets over at Betonline.AG

Cheat Codes: Mason Ho

"I love a crowded lineup if that's what you're gonna give me," Mason told Stab.

In this latest installment of Cheat Codes, we sat down with Mason Ho on the North Shore to dissect the beloved brain underneath that curly hair.

When Mason admits he "loves" a crowded lineup in the episode, he contradicts himself — he had just laid us out a three-step plan for a foolproof fun session that involved surfing alone (I won't spoil the other two steps here, you gotta watch the episode).

But, if you read between the lines, Mason is giving us a lesson in Stoic realism. If you can't change a situation and you must pass through it anyways, the most productive approach is to love it. Like the philosopher Albert Camus said of the man sentenced to an eternity of pushing a rock up a hill, "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

How to keep your skull intact, your forecast accurate, and your morale unbothered — no matter what. This is Cheat Codes with Mason Ho.

Visit stabmag.com for more.

Milk & Honey — A surf film starring Caity Simmers, Stephanie Gilmore, Coco Ho, and Frankie Harrer

We flew Stephanie Gilmore, Caity Simmers, Coco Ho and Frankie Harrer to the Philippines, and asked them to bring their favorite performance and alternative boards.

We expected thorns and roses. What we got was milk and honey.

“It’s ridiculous to say a shortboard is high-performance and other boards aren’t,” Stephanie Gilmore said. “All surfboards are high-performance in their own way.”

Rather than working in opposition, the boards complemented one another. This allowed each surfer to express the full range of their surfing, not just the top end.

Watch the 30 - minute film now on Stab Premium: https://stabmag.com/premium/watch-milk-honey/

Music: Golf Alpha Bravo - Blue Wave

8 Surfers Fight For $100,000

Welcome to the first episode of Surf100 Challenge Series Presented by Pacifico, where eight surfers are competing for a chance to win $100,000 USD.

To do so, they’ll need to avoid elimination across our seven-episode series — then defeat the two final bosses waiting for them in the finale.

The surfers: Ian Crane, ‘Rasta’ Rob McCormick, Noah Beschen, Mateus Herdy, Jacob Willcox, Sebastian Williams, Eithan Osborne, Cam Richards.

Episode One: King Of The Hill: 7x 15-minute heats. Unlimited waves. The surfer with the best wave in each heat is safe and returns to the beach.

Everyone else? Still vulnerable, still surfing.

This continues until only one surfer remains… and is eliminated.

Surf100 Youtube release schedule:
Episode 1: Thursday, June 12th, at 5 PM PDT — Subscribe to the channel above!
Episode 2: Thursday, June 26th, at 5 PM PDT
Episode 3: Thursday, July 10th, at 5 PM PDT
Episode 4: Thursday, July 24th, at 5 PM PDT
Episode 5: Thursday, August 7th, at 5 PM PDT
Episode 6: Thursday, August 21st, at 5 PM PDT
Episode 7: Thursday, September 4th, at 5 PM PDT
Classic Surf100 Final Broadcast With Live Scoring: September 10th on stabmag.com. Must be a Stab Premium Member to watch.

The Best Surfing I've Ever Seen: John Florence at Cobblestones (2012)

Blake Kueny is long-time filmer of John John Florence and the man behind some of his best films (View From A Blue Moon, anybody?)

The best surfing Blake’s seen happened in Western Australia in 2012. Albee Layer and Matt Meola were there, pushing John to absurd heights (and rotations).

Turns out there’s a hell of a backstory. We’ll let Blake take it from here.

Finals Day Highlights From Stab High Japan Presented By Monster Energy

Episode 3 of Poolside hosted by Kona Big Wave

How Was This Not A 10?! — Day One Highlights At Stab High Japan 2025 Presented By Monster Energy

Episode 2 of Poolside hosted by Kona Big Wave

Sudden-death shootouts, the first-ever superwoman, and a mullet-flapping Monster Air frontrunner.

Movie fans, the video’s above.

Readers, click here.

We’ll skip the blow-by-blow, but here’s the skinny:

Mikey Wright, fighting to keep his bloodline alive in the sudden-death round, eyed down the line, blasted over the kink like a maniac, pirouetted gloriously in the air, and landed like a palm sliding into your lap — smooth enough for a 49/50. The missing point came courtesy of Lee Wilson, obviously, but getting the guy to lift a hand and crack a smile is a small paper blessing.

In sudden death surf-off against Shane Borland, Matt Meola, outrageously performed a mid-wave double-grab chop hop followed by a double-grabbed, equally outrageous inverted backside full-rote — and closed with a hip thrust aimed at Lee Wilson, somewhere between satire and seduction.

The Ladybirds launched female progression into the stratosphere. Led by Laihani Zoric and Patti Zhou, they barely missed — their make rate that far eclipsed the men’s, and the pulse for progression hummed louder than Christian Fletcher’s exhaust. Mali Adam came achingly close to landing the first ever superwoman — to our knowledge, anyway. Happy to be corrected.

Just getting warmed up, and somehow the end’s already whispering. Tomorrow’s all that remains, so buckle up. Here’s what’s left:

SEMIFINALS — PRO MENS, BOTTLE ROCKETS, LADYBIRDS
Three Rights, Three Lefts
Best Single Air, Top 4 Advance To Final
Leaderboard Format: Surfers Against Entire Field

FINALS — PRO MENS, PRO WOMENS, BOTTLE ROCKETS, LADYBIRDS
Three Rights, Three Lefts
Best Right + Best Left Count Towards Score
Highest Combined Score Wins

Prize Money

Pros: $20,000 USD
Pro Women: $10,000 USD
Monster Air: $10,000 USD
Ladybirds: $5,000 USD
Bottle Rockets: $5,000 USD

Stab High Japan Warm-Ups With Julian Wilson, Harry Bryant, And More

Introducing Poolside, shot live from the decks of Shizunami Surf Stadium and brought to you by Kona Big Wave.

Watch Stab High, presented by Monster Energy on Stab Premium:
May 24–25 local (Japan) // May 23–24 in the Americas.

Meet McFly: The World's Biggest Air Section

Meet McFly — the world’s biggest air section, built with PerfectSwell technology. Surf Stadium Shizunami is the first to open it to the public. Watch YETI Bottle Rocket, Ryji Masuda, test Stab High 2025's new ramp.

Watch Stab High, presented by Monster Energy on Stab Premium:
May 24–25 local (Japan) // May 23–24 in the Americas.

Video: Bruno Zanin